Myers started the game for the Astros with a huge chip on his shoulder since the Phillies dismissed him after last season.Not resigning Myers turned out to be a mistake as he has found his groove and is pitching very well for the Astros.Myers had an 8-7 record with a 3.11 ERA coming into tonight’s game.

The Phillies tried to chip away at Myers who, in the 2nd, struck out Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez all in a row.Plowing through the meat of the line-up, he finally allowed a solo homer to Carlos Ruiz in the 3rd and another run on a Chase Utley single.

On the other side, Joe Blanton was having a good game as well.Although Blanton is still having issues getting through the 1st inning of nearly every ballgame he pitches in.Tonight, he escaped with only 1 run allowed in the 1st thanks to some timely defense which bailed him out of big trouble.Utley threw a runner out at home and Werth caught a tough fly ball that was sailing away from him.

But after the rocky 1st, Blanton was solid.He ended up going 7 innings, another rarity for his this year.In 21 games this year, Blanton has gone 7 innings or more only 8 times, including tonight.6 hits, 1 run and 9 strike-outs later, Blanton left with a 2-1 lead.

But that lead was put in jeopardy when Ryan Madson came in for the 8th and drama ensued.Michaels singled and then Bourn bunted for what looked like an out.Howard tagged him and Bourn seemed to have run out of the baseline but the umpire ruled that Howard missed the tag and Bourn did not go out of the base line until after the tag attempt.Both Utley and manager Charlie Manuel argued the call heatedly, but to no avail.Manuel was tossed from the game.

And that play did wind up costing the Phillies the lead.Madson struck out Hunter Pence but then allowed a 2-run single to Carlos Lee to give the Astros a 3-2 lead.The Phillies then had to play from behind going into the bottom of the 8th.

With the lead gone, Werth was probably having very bad flashbacks to the 6th inning when he fell asleep at 2nd base.Myers was intentionally walking Ruiz to get to Wilson Valdez, who had a huge hit the last time a pitcher did that.But Valdez did not get a shot as Werth hung his head and was quickly thrown out wandering like a zombie off 2nd base.It was a huge opportunity lost.

Fast forward to the 9th and Brad Lidge kept the score steady; the Phils had one last chance to make something happen.Well, nothing happened, except the Phillies lost the game.No scoring in the 9th and the 3-2 score held up.

I will be going to Game 2 of this series tomorrow night to collect the Carlos Ruiz bobblehead doll which will be given away.My seat location sucks, but I hope to get a few photos to post on Wednesday.Game time is 7:05pm and Cole Hamels will pitch for the Phillies.

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